Parent Advocate

Job Summary:

Reporting to the Coordinator of Family Voice, the parent advocate partners with agency staff to support parents with children in foster care to understand and navigate the foster care system, make decisions for their families, remain hopeful, and address family challenges so that they can accomplish their goal of reunification. The focus of this job is building connections with parents and working collaboratively with case planners.

Essential Generic Job Functions:

• Build relationships and support parents in coping with the trauma of foster care involvement, assist parents to raise their voice to make decisions for their families, help parents communicate effectively with those involved in their case, and support them in maintaining relationships with their children during foster care placement.
• Prepare parents and participate in Family Team Conferences including but not limited to Transitional, Six- Month Service Plan Review, Trial Discharge and Final Discharge conferences.
• Provide guidance and support to parents in other venues, including treatment team conferences, court dates, family visits, etc.
• Facilitate support groups for parents.
• Collaborate with other parent advocates to recruit and co-facilitate JCCA Parent Advisory Councils (PACs).
• Participate in agency meetings as needed to partner with case planning teams in supporting and advocating for parents.
• Be trained in a variety of parent advocates service models including, but not limited to PEP (Parent Empowerment Program), Rise Training for newly hired Parent Advocates, Restorative Justice Peacekeeping Circles, Parenting Journey, Coaching, etc.
• Learn to use Rise’s TIPS handouts and resources to inform and support parents.
• Under leadership of Coordinator of Family Voice, participate in the development of protocols and practices designed to engage and support families as they navigate through the child welfare and behavioral health systems.
• Recognize and celebrate parents’ progress toward reunification.
• Encourage parents to engage in supportive interventions that will strengthen their families.
• Help families navigate resources.
• Contribute to defining and achieving success for this effort to build effective and meaningful roles for parent advocates in foster care agencies.
• Coach parents to strengthen problem-solving skills while discovering their strengths, hopes, dreams and priorities.
• Participate in family visiting as needed to support and coach parents.
• Conduct home visits to families in order to engage and support parents.
• Coach, support, and advocate for parents related to case progression issues, including but not limited to issues related to visitation, court-orders, and needed service referrals.
• Partner with home finding team and foster parent advocates to advance parent-to-parent work between foster parents and parents.
• Other duties as assigned

 Qualifications:

• High School or GED required
• Previous life experience being impacted by the child welfare system as a parent including having had a child placed in foster care or having had a court-ordered supervision case. Other prior child welfare involvement such as having personally experienced child welfare investigations may also qualify. Previous child welfare cases must be closed for at least one year.
• Warm, enthusiastic, able to engage and positively impact individuals.
• Someone who has a sincere appreciation for people and how they are each uniquely motivated.
• Strong interpersonal skills to assist with parent engagement and are geared towards working sensitively on topics involving trauma, stress, and healing.
• Computer skills conducting Google searches and using Microsoft Office.
• Skilled at working in a fast-paced environment on multiple projects occurring simultaneously.
• Passion for parent leadership and preventing child welfare involvement.
• Able to maintain high level of confidentiality.
• Able to travel to NYC boroughs and Westchester.
• Able to uphold the mission and values of JCCA

Pay Rate: $22.00 per hour